Bad Movies & Songs That Give Me Chills – California Dreamin’ & The Hollywood Knights

My Netflix queue is messed up. Either I have terrible (read: eccentric) taste in movies or the Netflix movie picking algorithm is screwed up, because I get a suggested lot of two star (didn’t like) movies that I actually really liked, and a lot of four star (really liked) movies that I didn’t like at all. Perhaps it’s all the rom-coms and late night comedies that I end up watching, as opposed to the ones from the Criterion Collection?

One of those didn’t like movies that I actually really liked showed up on my queue the other day, The Hollywood Knights.

The Hollywood Knights came up in my Netflix queue under “Like: Just One of the Guys“. I don’t actually remember watching Just One of the Guys, though Netflix tells me that I did - probably one of those movies that I fell asleep watching. The Hollywood Knights, on the other hand, I actually stayed awake for. Released in 1980, it’s obviously a riff on American Graffiti (released in 1973) though where American Graffiti is insightful, endearing, and has a lot of soul, Hollywood Knights is juvenile, raunchy, stupid, and playful.

To reference a more recent film, it’s more American Pie than American Graffiti. Not that its bad – though I really like a lot of bad movies, like Coneheads, or Blues Brothers 2000 – it’s just too derivative and obvious. Set in the mid ’60s, it tries to be somewhat serious with the background of the Vietnam war and the camaraderie of a car club, but the ridiculous elements overwhelm an otherwise noble premise.

In the end though, despite its flaws it’s ultimately a very genuine feeling movie and does have a lot of charm, even if it’s completely unbelieveable and random in spots. And if you thought Michelle Pfeiffer was hot as the cold trophy wife in Scarface, she’s smoking hot as the pink budding ingenue in The Hollywood Knights. Oh, and Fran Drescher is in it as well, if you like that voice…

One thing that The Hollywood Knights does have going for it is a terrific soundtrack – from Frankie Valli to The Supremes to The Beach Boys, the classics from the ’60s are covered, and more. Even though I was born in the ’70s, grew up in the ’80s, and came of age in the ’90s, musically I am stuck in the ’60s – that decade is my favorite in music by far. I could easily go to a desert island and listen to nothing but live Grateful Dead shows from 1969 for the rest of my life and die a happy man. One song in the movie that never fails to give me the chills is California Dreamin’ by The Mamas and the Papas. It makes an appearance during the scene where Gary Graham (Sikes from Alien Nation) is presented a car from the club. Tony Danza pops in an 8-track, and the magic happens… chills.

I don’t know why, but from the plaintive acoustic intro, to the deceptively simple lyrics, perfect harmonies and that reedy flute solo (which could almost be a recorder), the song always gives me chills and evokes strong memories and feelings. Not to mention an impossibly young (and ridiculously hot) Michelle Philips singing. Yes, you can call me a mysoginist pig if you like but you know I’m right.

Here’s a clip for your listening pleasure.

And the original 45rpm single:

The soundtrack itself is long out of print, according to discogs.com it was only released on vinyl way back when the movie first came out. With only twelve songs, it doesn’t even have California Dreamin’ on it, so don’t go digging around for it! With IMDB.com’s help I snagged all the songs from the movie, except for the title track.

If you want to watch the whole movie – it’s on Youtube! Enjoy!

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Thoughts on Raw Denim

Even though I’m big on the totally natural organic progression of things (with everything in life) I’m of two minds when it comes to raw (AKA dry) denim – if the result is to end up with a beautifully faded pair of jeans, I like the process, but it just takes too damn long! On the other hand, I don’t know if it’s about the final result, because a good pair of jeans are a journey – there’s no real end to it.

Me wearing ancient 501s

It’s like trying to grow your hair out – there’s that initial period after a cut where you’re happy because it looks fresh and great, but you’re still kind of unsure about it because it’s so new. Then time passes and it grows out a bit and you start to feel comfortable. Then that awkward in between period comes on where it’s a bit long and you feel kind of unsure about the whole thing… and after what seems like an eternity, it’s the desired length and looks good and everyone’s happy. Then you cut it again and the process starts over.

Raw denim, kind of the same way. At first it looks good but it’s a bit tight and stiff, dark and beautiful, classic and almost good enough to wear to the office every day. Then you sit and walk and run and fall and stuff your pockets and the wear starts to come on. Little insouciant white spots start to peek through from your wallet or iPod or keys. People ask you if you’re sick or anemic because your hands are all blue. You sit on a white sofa and leave butt marks. Or you go out in the rain and your nice white shoes are now streaked indigo. It’s an awkward in between that doesn’t feel right. Depending on your level of denim craziness, you may possibly resist the urge to wash the jeans for months because that’ll spread the dye everywhere and ruin the fade. Finally, you give in when the smell gets too bad to bear and the freezer can’t kill it, and the glorious fruit of honeycombs blossom and everything is right. A button may pop and a tear may appear in a knee but it’s all good – it’s part of the story, part of living in an organic, mutable piece of clothing.

What I don’t get is deliberately pushing the story along with assists or helpers, like spray starch, sandpaper, or hot/cold soaks or other nonsense. True to their roots, jeans should be something to just throw on and not think too much about, as long as you’re happy with the fit and to a lesser degree, the image they present. Want a real heavy fade? Just wear the shit out of them day in, day out, nothing else required.

Pre-distressed denim? I’m not a fan, unless it’s just slightly distressed, like my favorite Nudie Grim Tim Broken Black. Just a bit of softness and white poking out around the leg.

Slightly distressed denim, it’s just getting over that awkward stiff breaking in period. Like breaking in that new engine so you get all the horsepower from it. Or a beautiful woman with a slightly crooked smile. Perfection is unattainable and in most cases, undesirable. The little imperfections bring a lot more character and desire.

Heavily distressed denim I don’t like, unless it’s in a non-standard way, like these Dolce & Gabbana jeans from a couple of seasons ago:

Rips?!

Some would say that heavy distressing and giant rips are contrived and false, but with the DGs, they’re so out there and beyond the realm of any kind of natural happening. It’s not like taking a brand new Civic and making it rusty, beating a thousand dents into it, replacing a fender or two with flat black painted ones, and dropping coffee and food inside. Then finding out the seats are still plush and not molded to your butt, and the paint job isn’t equally worn so it looks off. It’s like driving a new Civic with a big honking spoiler on it. Doesn’t do much of anything for performance, but it screams “look at me!”. It’s the rock star thing – and isn’t that the point? That’s what I find false about heavily distressed denim that’s made to look like it’s been naturally worn – it’s not rock star, it’s a fake antique. Some would say the rock star thing is equally poseur, but if you can pull it off, why the fuck not?

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Chocolate Ice Cream

Another recipe from the fine cookbook, Beyond Nose to Tail – More Omnivorous Recipes for the Adventurous Cook, by Fergus Henderson & Justin Piers Gellatly.

Fergus Henderson’s first book, The Whole Beast, had a chocolate ice cream recipe that asked readers to submit their own versions. In the sequel, the recipe has been perfected and is presented in all its simplistic glory. After my experience with the Fernet Branca based Dr. Henderson Ice Cream, the Chocolate Ice Cream recipe proved a good second test.

Containing only eggs, cream, milk, sugar, cocoa and chocolate, the result is an intensely chocolately experience. If you’re used to the usual fluff ice cream with the pillowy mouth feel (even from high-end ice cream makers) you’ll be bowled over. This ice cream is like eating a very cold, very rich chocolate bar. It’s very dense and the texture is not immediately giving in the mouth. You get a first intense hit of chocolate, then the sweetness from the caramel comes in – a brilliant touch which balances everything perfectly. Upon tasting it, a friend could not stop declaring it “yumsters!”, and I agree.

It’s not hard or complex to make either, though a stand mixer helps to keep your arm from falling off. I used a touch more cream and a bit less milk than called for, around an ounce. The recipe also calls for chocolate with at least 70% cocoa solids; I was feeling lazy and picked up some Lindt 70% Dark from the local Shoppers Drug Mart. The brand called for in the recipe, El Rey Apamate, is available via mail order, but complete unobtainum via retail in the Toronto area (I could be wrong about this, but I didn’t try looking very hard!) Either way, as long as you use reasonably high quality chocolate it’s not a big deal. The only issue was with the last part, making the caramel. The difference between perfectly browned and completely burnt seems to be 15 to 30 seconds if you’re not careful with the temperature, so if in doubt, turn down the heat.

The other caveat when making this is you must have lots of patience. Once the liquid ice cream is composed (could any other word be used for such a symphonic result?) it must stay in the fridge for two days before churning in an ice cream machine. I would say an ice cream machine is absolutely necessary because the mixture is so thick, doing the freezer and whisk thing in absence of one would be tough. After churning, the ice cream needs another four days in the freezer for all the flavours to come together. The book suggests this improves the flavour, and I definitely agree.

The result!

It melts kind of quickly, but that’s alright because it will probably be eaten even faster. It’s that good.

The June issue of Bon Appetit magazine features this recipe. I ended up with roughly four 236ml containers, and a good sized serving is around a quarter of a container. Like any good chocolate, being so rich, any more than that is unnecessary overkill. Going by the measures I used and the information on The Calorie Counter, I came up with around 125 calories and 7g of fat per serving. Totally worth it if you’re watching what you eat.

Recipe scanned from the book again – click thumbnail for full size. Happy eating!

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Iron Heart Beatle Buster Overdyed

With fall around the corner, time for new jeans! High end denim is everywhere these days, but I was looking for something black, new and unique. Sorry Nudie, I have way too many pairs of you. I think I found my match in the Iron Heart Beatle Buster Overdyed (IHxB01od).

Iron Heart are a Japanese company, with the Western reps out of the UK, specifically Gosport, in the south of England. Founded in 2005, they specialize in the “essentials of U.S.A. clothing”, creating “clothing in classic, timeless styles”. They don’t follow fashion or trends, making rugged tops, bottoms, and accessories from the best materials. Most of their products do have a retro type bent, but anyone can wear any of their pieces. I found them through the fantastic denim shop Self Edge.

The IHxB01od are a 100% Japanese selvedge cotton, slim tapered raw indigo jean, overdyed in black fugitive pigment dye. Slim throughout the hip and thigh, and not quite calf/ankle hugging, they have a slightly higher rise than I’m used to as well. Kind of like a cross between a Grim Tim, APC New Standard, and a 501, except much more… muscular. The 21oz denim is thick and heavy, but has a definite softness. They’re stiff, but not at all like cardboard – they won’t cut into the back of your knees when new. It’s a jean that screams authenticity, toughness, and quality, but not in an overt way. Like a recent modern fashion piece (though it’s not a fashion jean), the wearer feels and knows the details; to the casual third-party eye it’s just a great fitting, great looking jean. Can’t wait to see how they fade through black to indigo then to white!

Here are a few pre-wear shots:

Flash washed out a bit, they're actually way darker

Patina button detail

Two pennies thick

After careful consideration about my size, I ordered a 29, since I wanted them very slim and not loose at all. First time putting them on, they were crunchingly tight, required sucking in to get the top button done, and real peeling to get them off. Second time around, a little easier to get on and take off, but still tight. I’ve got a few day’s worth of around-the-house wear into them now and they’re stretching and breaking in nicely. If you’re looking for the obligatory fit pic/butt shot I’ll have to disappoint you, but rest assured they end up comfortable and still maintain the “bra for your ass” lift of any good jean – I’m not one for sagging. The fit pics on the Iron Heart website are a good indicator of how they fit.

Even though I’m ecstatic with these jeans, the only problem is fitting them into my rotation of other raw denim – right now, I’m working on a pair of Nudie Slim Jim Dry Broken Twill (three months) and APC New Standard Overdye Black (two months), along with some other vanilla Levi’s and BOSS jeans. The Nudies have come along well, though in comparison to the Iron Heart, they’re flimsy and weightless, and have stretched out and are a bit saggy. The APCs are half as heavy and have less stiffness, but they’ve stubbornly resisted and are still a ways away (molded to body stretching only, no honeycombs or fades). Being black, I think I’ll get a lot more daily use out of the Iron Heart, so perhaps they won’t take as long. More posts to update this one as they come together.

You can get Iron Heart jeans from Self Edge - either in person from their New York, Los Angeles, or San Francisco stores, or online with free worldwide shipping. Kiya at Self Edge was very helpful in answering questions and helping me select a size – do check them out.

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Lentils Vinaigrette – Salade de Lentilles

For the first time in a long time, I actually had time this past weekend to relax, catch up on the menial housework I’ve left too long, and cook! I broke out one of my absolute favorite cookbooks of all time, Thomas Keller’s Bouchon.

Well worn copy of Bouchon

It’s a great collection of french bistro recipes, covering everything from appetizers to desserts. I’ve had the book for a few years now, but have only had time to tackle a couple of recipes from it – Boeuf Bourguinon (braised beef with red wine) and Pieds de Cochon et Mache, Sauce Gribiche (pork trotters with mache and sauce gribiche). Both were highly involved - between the stock required for the Boeuf Bourguinon and the slow simmering and chilling required for the Pieds de Cochon, both took literally days to prepare. Which is why I only bust out those kind of recipes once a year!

This weekend, I decided to keep things simple and made a quick Lentils Vinaigrette, a simple lentil salad. Unfortunately, I didn’t plan ahead and just used whatever stuff I had on hand, which made for lots of substitutions, but still resulted in a tasty salad!

Green Le Puy lentils became brown no-name brown lentils:

Brown lentils

Here’s the sachet of onion, garlic, thyme, peppercorns. I added a few cardamom pods. Note the white onion, I didn’t have red.

A sachet about to be born

The sachet nestled in with the other aromatics before simmering. I didn’t have a leek so I used celery with a scallion instead. Not even close, I know.

Sachet poking its head out

Once the lentils have simmered for 20-25 minutes, add salt and red wine vinegar, remove from the heat and put into a shallow container to cool. I misplaced my shallow pan so I used a steel bowl instead.

Happy lentils with veggies

When the lentils have cooled, remove all the aromatics and strain in a colander to have all the lentils all their own, then add finely chopped onion, check for salt and pepper, then dress with a blend of dijon mustard, red wine vinegar and olive oil. Toss in chopped parsley and chives (which I didn’t have) and you’re done!

The result:

Lentils Vinaigrette

Keeps well in the fridge for a couple of days, and serves well cold. Best to leave it for the better part of a day in the fridge for all the flavors to intermingle. The result, if you cook the lentils unmushy like I do, is soft with a bit of a crunch, creamy and very fresh tasting, with all the herbs and spices coming through. Very satisfying. I can’t wait to make it exactly according to the recipe.

The key to this recipe, I think (besides using the right ingredients) is the virtual “steeping” of the lentils with the vegetables and sachet. That and remembering not to add salt right away during the simmering, since like beans, lentils tend to seize right up in the cooking process once you add salt.

Rough shot of the recipe follows.

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Dr. Henderson Ice Cream

I don’t have that many cookbooks, so they’re all favorites, but this one is near the top of the list:

Beyond Nose to Tail – More Omnivorous Recipes for the Adventurous Cook, by Fergus Henderson & Justin Piers Gellatly (buy from Amazon.ca here).

It’s full of adventurous recipes (entire pig’s head anyone?) but I decided to keep things simple and start with a dessert. When I was at St. John restaurant back in 2009, I was so stuffed after having bone marrow, tripe, and welsh rarebit, I could only muster a glass of muscat for dessert. So even though I’d have to make it myself, I could still get the bit of St. John that I missed.

Dr. Henderson ice cream, named after Fergus Henderson’s father, is flavored primarily with an interesting mix of Fernet Branca and Creme de Menthe. It echoes the last recipe from The Whole Beast (the predecessor to Beyond Nose to Tail), “A Miracle”. Calling for two parts Fernet Branca and one part Creme de Menthe with ice, it’s a hangover cure along the lines of a Corpse Reviver (brandy, fernet branca, creme de menthe).

For the uninitiated, Fernet Branca is a bitter liqueur, kind of like a hopped up Jagermeister, being slightly higher in alcohol content and having a different mix of herbs and aromatics. Even though I really like bitter flavors, and can drink Campari and Jagermeister straight up no problem, Fernet Branca straight up is a bit much – best to mix it with Coke or Creme de Menthe and four large ice cubes.

The ice cream itself is a very simple custard based recipe, and is not very tricky to make. The only trouble: almost curdling the custard after tempering the egg/sugar mixture, and definitely curdling after adding the alcohol. Note to self: next time, cool the custard down before adding the alcohol, or heat up the alcohol slightly. Even though I added the booze slowly (like tempering the eggs) it started to curdle almost immediately. Pushing everything through a sieve cleared up most of the solids, and once put through an ice cream machine, it’s not noticeable at all.

The result!

I used white Creme de Menthe instead of green, thinking this would make a more appetizing color. Combined with the brownish orange Fernet Branca and yellowish custard base, the result is a kind of muddy creamy yellow. Which is OK, but I think the green would have been better, making it a bit more exotic looking to match the taste.

Taste-wise, it’s a definite love/hate thing. Mentally, when you see ice cream and put it in your mouth, you expect sweet, not bitter. The initial note of this ice cream is bitter, with the alcohol very noticeable and a healthy dose of sweet. Then the herbs and other aromatics of the Fernet Branca kick in. If you’re not into bitters like I am, it may be a bit overwhelming after three or four tastes. However because it’s so rich, you really don’t need a lot for a good dessert serving – two tablespoons would be plenty. If you do make it and your guests put up a funny face, have some regular vanilla ice cream on hand to balance it out. This ice cream with regular vanilla in a 1:3 ratio is really very good.

Recipe scanned from the book for the adventurous – click thumbnail for full size. Happy eating!

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Hello Hello

Thanks for coming by to read my blog!

I’m going to shoot for a post a week at first, and perhaps more later on.

What are you going to see here… basically, everything that interests me that’s worth writing about. I have way too many interests for my own good. It’s a character flaw.

Oh yes, the name, Panther & Tortoise. Inspired by a couple of cats, but also personally representative. The lithe, mysterious, calculating, possibly dangerous panther, and the slow, steady, thoughtful tortoise. Always at loggerheads but mixing together.

Come back soon, and often.

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Panther & Tortoise

Food. Fashion. Music. Life. Love. Everything.

Bad Movies & Songs That Give Me Chills – California Dreamin’ & The Hollywood Knights

Thoughts on Raw Denim

Chocolate Ice Cream

Iron Heart Beatle Buster Overdyed

Lentils Vinaigrette – Salade de Lentilles

Dr. Henderson Ice Cream

Hello Hello

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